Tokyo Curry Mania: ‘Kanazawa Curry’ Takes Over Akihabara

TOKYO — The latest curry craze to hit Tokyo is one that American foodies are already familiar with, even if they don’t realize it.

Kanazawa curry, named for a city in Japan’s Ishikawa prefecture, is a distinct variety of Japanese curry, typified by its rich, gooey brown sauce. It’s so thick that you can eat it with a fork — or a metal spork, as is common. Although it is most popular in its home city, Kanazawa curry is also available elsewhere in Japan, as well as in America: New York City’s well-known Go Go Curry is Kanazawa style.

For me personally, it’s what I was trained on: My first experience in Japan was a year at Kanazawa University, where the school’s dining hall served amazing curry every day that I, like so many Go Go Curry diners in Manhattan, erroneously thought was how all Japanese curry was made. Kanazawa curry is just one of the many different varieties of Japan’s popular lunch food, which in the aggregate is quite a different experience from Indian or Thai curry — it’s less of a spicy culinary adventure and more of a comfort food.

Lately, Kanazawa curry has been proliferating in the unlikeliest of places: Akihabara, Tokyo’s electronics and otaku culture district. A friend of mine in the city, knowing of my curry history, said he’d thought of me when he saw a television program that talked about this recent development.

While Kanazawa curry is not well-known by name outside Japan (a Google search, as of this writing, turns up my Twitter account as the third hit), the peculiarities of the style have been documented by curry otaku on the Japanese-language Wikipedia:

Thick and gooey sauce, made with things like caramel

Shredded cabbage served on the side

Served in a stainless steel bowl

Eaten with a fork or spork

Pork cutlet placed on top of curry, tonkatsu sauce on top of cutlet

Sauce covers the entirety of the white rice below, so that it cannot be seen

While the presentation elements are interesting, it’s the caramel sweetness that makes Kanazawa curry so uniquely delicious. As other Japanese news sources have reported, no fewer than three shops that serve this distinctive dish can be found within 100 meters of each other on the main drag of Akihabara, scattered throughout the videogames, comics, and flat-screen TVs.

Go Go Curry's new branch in Akihabara can be clearly seen on the district's main shopping street.Photo: Chris Kohler/Wired.com

The best-known is Go Go Curry (pictured top). In years past, you had to venture off the beaten path to find Go Go’s Akihabara branch down a side street. Late last year, a new branch opened right in the heart of the action, perfect for a midday meal in between bouts of spending too much money on action figures and retrogames.

It’s still best known for its crazy heart-stopping toppings: While you can order the standard pork or chicken cutlet, you can also get the Major Curry, which includes one of everything: two cutlets, a boiled egg, a fried shrimp and two sausages. If you’re even hungrier than that, you can order the World Champion Curry, which features all that plus more rice and sauce, for a whopping 2.5 kilograms of food.

Alba's take on Kanazawa curry is quite close to Go Go's.Photo: Chris Kohler/Wired.com

Just around the corner is Karee no Shimin Alba (“Alba, the Curry Citizens”), which serves curry that’s quite similar to Go Go’s — it even has “Home Run Curry,” its own giant pile of toppings. If you’re looking to change up your toppings from Go Go’s more limited selection, Alba might be a good choice, as it also has scrambled eggs and cream croquettes. Also, the sauce is a little bit thinner, which means it runs down into the rice, unlike Go Go’s which pretty much just sits on top of it.

Otherwise, the taste and presentation are very close: thick brown roux, melty cheese if that’s your thing, spork. Still delicious, although I’d have to give the slight edge to Go Go, which has larger katsu and a more robust flavor.

If you want a little bit of fantasy role-playing with your curry, try the Champion Curry at Cure Maid Cafe, served by obsequious girls in maid outfits.Photo: Chris Kohler/Wired.com

But if you’re going to Akihabara, shouldn’t you patronize one of the district’s many famous maid cafes? If there’s anything that’s spreading across Aki faster than K-curry, it’s the maid cafe: pretty little teahouses with Victorian furniture, dainty snacks, and most importantly a cadre of adorable young women in French maid outfits who elegantly glide through the tables, bowing deeply to the customers at every turn, addressing everyone as “master” and “mistress.”

Let’s not get into a discussion of the many various fetishes at work here; let’s stick to the curry. One of Akiba’s oldest and best-known maid cafes, called Cure Maid, is located just across the street from Alba, on the sixth floor of a building that also houses a famous store filled with hundreds of capsule toy machines.

There, they serve “Champion Curry.” While there is also a standard beef curry dish on the lunch menu, this one is the Kanazawa variety. This was actually a bit different from the other two shops’. The maids in the kitchen — yes, of course the kitchen staff is also dressed in maid outfits — slice the katsu finely across its width, but not all the way through. So you’re pulling off shredded bits of katsu with your spoon as you eat your way through the dish. There’s also not as much curry sauce as you get with Go Go or Alba.

After trying Akihabara’s full range of Kanazawa curry, I’d still have to give the nod to Go Go. It might be the obvious choice, but it’s doing so well because it offers the superior product. Still, there are plenty of reasons to try the offerings at Alba and Cure Maid if you make a habit of eating curry on your trips to the nerd capital of the world.